Bias Suit Cited as Possible Cause of Melee at Denny’s

The melee that broke out at a Denny’s restaurant in Long Beach early Tuesday appears to have been planned and may have been racially motivated in response to a years-old discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant chain, police said Wednesday.

The incident followed smaller but similar conflicts at the restaurant and other Denny’s in the Long Beach area, police said.

Police said the fracas, which began after about 100 young African Americans came to the restaurant about 2 a.m., erupted when one woman dropped a glass. Immediately, a voice shouted, “It’s started” and others with her started smashing glasses, police said.

A restaurant employee tried to call police, but a customer ripped the phone from the wall, police said. Employees fled to the back of the restaurant in the 5500 block of East Pacific Coast Highway when the customers started throwing chairs against the walls, causing about $1,000 in damage, before fleeing with $100 from the cash register, police said.

Sgt. Jim Rodriguez said neighbors reported seeing people drinking in the parking lot shortly before the incident.

“Whether it was late planning or early planning, who knows?” Rodriguez said. He theorized that the disturbance may have been intended as a response to alleged racial discrimination in 1992 and 1993 by employees of the national restaurant chain based in South Carolina.

Restaurant managers and a corporate spokeswoman dismissed any tie to the racial charges made in the lawsuit, which was settled in 1994. They insisted that Tuesday’s melee was an isolated incident.

Restaurant manager Phil Hong said that in “any restaurant open 24 hours you will get that group of people drinking and coming in.”

The row follows recent, smaller incidents at the restaurant in which customers have come in late at night and harassed employees before leaving without paying for meals or stealing money, police said.

“It makes a lot of us feel bad. Someday somebody’s going to get hurt,” said one employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The employee added that the commotions are often racially charged. “People come in here and say, ‘Are you discriminating against me?’ ” the employee said.

Officers pulled over several cars after Tuesday’s disturbance, but no arrests were made. Witness accounts produced only vague descriptions of the suspects, police said, adding that the theft investigation may revolve around fingerprints that were taken at the restaurant.